Travel tech startup Pollen raises $150M Series C to scale its curated travel experiences and expand its global reach

Pollen, a London, England-based travel tech startup that curates and delivers travel experiences, has raised $150 million in its Series C funding. The round was backed by prominent investors including Kindred, Lansdowne Partners, Northzone, Sienna Capital, Backed, and Molton Ventures.

The funding news comes on the heels of significant momentum for Pollen. Last year, Pollen saw stellar growth despite the pandemic – sales increased more than 300% relative to pre-pandemic levels. The company will use the new cash infusion to solidify its market position, scale its number of curated travel experiences and expand its global reach among the communities it serves.

Founded in 2014 by brothers Callum and Liam Negus-Fancey, Pollen specializes in the fields of events, travel, festivals, entertainment, experiences, membership, and youth culture. The company is on a mission to build, curate, and deliver the best experiences all over the world. Pollen uses data and customer insights to create experiences that are exclusive to its platform, and also partners with the biggest music festivals and brands in the world to sell their experiences.

The company partners with brands including Live Nation, C3 Presents, MGM Resorts, Universal Music Group, and more. It also integrates with ticketing providers such as Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Priceline, Stubhub, SeeTickets, Paylogic, and Front Gate Tickets.

“People want personalized travel experiences built around what they are passionate about,” said Co-Founder and CEO Callum Negus-Fancey, “and Pollen is at the forefront of this demand; we use our proprietary data and customer insights to build one-of-a-kind travel experiences with the world’s biggest talent and brands in the best destinations. When people look back after 10 years and think about their top five memories, we want them to feel like Pollen was responsible for three of them.”

Since its inception eight years ago, Pollen has created hundreds of exclusive travel experiences featuring the world’s biggest talent and brands including J Balvin, Justin Bieber, and Duran Duran. Pollen co-created NEON with J Balvin, a global experience that celebrates Latin culture. J Balvin recently told PEOPLE, “It’s been a really great experience with NEON, J Balvin, and good vibes.” Balvin continued, “We went about a year without seeing [my fans] but now after going through all that, we’re back. Thank you Pollen.”

In addition to incredible entertainment, Pollen’s curated itineraries immerse guests in the destination through the world’s leading hotels, venues, restaurants, and nightclubs, and feature local activities including scuba diving, sailing, biking, and more. Pollen’s members who attend its experiences often say it was the best vacation of their lives and they’ll remember it forever.